The present invention relates to a toner used for developing an electrostatic latent image in an electrophotography, an electrostatic recording, etc.
An imaging process wherein use is made of static electricity, such as electrostatic recording or electrostatic photography, comprises the step of forming an electrostatic latent image and the step of visualizing the electrostatic latent image. The electrostatic latent image is formed by light signal on a photosensitive material prepared by coating a base material such as aluminum and paper with a photoconductive material such as phthalocyanine pigment, selenium, cadmium sulfide and amorphous silicon. The electrostatic latent image thus formed is visualized by subjecting colored fine particles called toner having a particle diameter regulated to 5 to 50 .mu.m to contact electrification with a charge carrier such as iron powder and ferrite powder (two-component development) or direct electrification (one-component development) and then allowing the charged toner to act on the electrostatic latent image. It is necessary to impart a charge corresponding to the polarity of the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductive material, that is, either a positive charge or a negative charge, to the toner.
The colored fine particle called toner generally comprises a binder resin and a colorant as the indispensable components and an optional component such as a magnetic powder. An electric charge can be imparted to the toner through the utilization of an electrification property of the binder resin per se without using any charge control agent. In this method, however, no good image quality can be obtained due to poor time stability and poor moisture resistance. For this reason, a charge control agent is usually added for the purpose of retaining and controlling the electric charge.
Quality characteristics required of the toner include excellent electrifiability, fluidity and fixing property. These quality characteristics are greatly affected by the charge control agent used for the toner.
Examples of the conventional charge control agent added to the toner include (1) colored negative charge control agents such as 2:1 metallic complex salt dyes (Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) Nos. 26478/1970 and 201531/1966) and phthalocyanine pigments (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 45931/1977), and colorless charge control agents such as those described in Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 7384/1984 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 3149/1986 and (2) positive charge control agents such as nigrosine dyes, various quaternary ammonium salts (Bulletin of the Institute of Electrostatics Japan, vol. 4, No. 3, P. 114 (1980)) and organotin compounds such as dibutyltin oxide (Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 29704/1982). The toners containing these compounds as the charge control agent, however, do not sufficiently satisfy the quality characteristics requirements for the toner, such as electrifiability and time stability. For example, although the amount of electrification of the toner containing a 2:1 metallic complex salt dye known as the negative charge control agent is on a fair level, this dye is disadvantageously poor in the dispersibility in a binder resin on the whole. For this reason, the dye is not homogeneously dispersed in the binder resin, and the distribution of the amount of charge extremely lacks in sharpness. The resultant image has a low gradation and is poor in the image forming capability. Further, this dye is disadvantageous because it cannot be used but for a toner having a shade of color limited to black or blackish hue. The use of this dye for a color toner is detrimental to the brightness of the colorant.
Examples of the nearly colorless negative charge control agent include a metal complex of an aromatic dicarboxylic acid (Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 7384/1984). This charge control agent, however, is disadvantageous in that it cannot become completely colorless and the dispersibility is poor. Examples of the colorless negative charge control agent include a compound disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 3149/1986. This compound, however, is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to produce a toner having a good stability because the heat stability during the production of the toner is poor due to a low melting point of this compound.
The nigrosine dye known as the positive charge control agent as well is colored and therefore can be used only for a toner having a color limited to black or blackish color and poor in the time stability in continuous copying. The quaternary ammonium salt, when incorporated in a toner, has a poor time stability attributable to its insufficient moisture resistance and therefore cannot provide an image having a good quality in repeated use. Thus, the conventional charge control agents do not sufficiently satisfy the quality characteristics requirements for the toner.